Tadashi Yanai
ABOUT TADASHI YANAI
Founder of Fast Retailing, at one point Asia's largest apparel firm. He married affordability with stylishness in his Uniqlo clothing line. In October of 2021, he was ranked as the richest person in Japan.
He founded Uniqlo as a brandless warehouse business selling low-priced imports to Japanese youth. He learned how to grow the company after watching the operations of Lai Chee-ying in Hong Kong.
He had the world's fourth-largest apparel company by 2013, operating 1,200 stores globally with sales nearing $10 billion. He released a book in 2009 called Throw Away Your Success in a Day.
He was born in Japan and attended Ube High School and Waseda University.
He adopted the approach of the Swedish fashion giant H&M, which also found a balance between affordability and style with the latter accomplished by engaging models like Daphne Groeneveld .
